1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device manufacturing method including a process of forming a thin film on a substrate, and a substrate processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Among semiconductor device manufacturing processes, there is a process of forming an insulating film such as silicon oxide (SiO2) film or silicon nitride (Si3N4) film. Since silicon oxide films have good properties such as excellent insulation properties and low dielectric constant, silicon oxide films are widely used as insulating films or interlayer films. In addition, since silicon nitride films have good properties such as excellent insulation properties, corrosion resistance, dielectric constant, and film stress controllability, silicon nitride films are widely used as insulating films, mask films, charge storage films, and stress control films. As a method of forming such a film, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method or an atomic layer deposition (ALD) is used.
In recent years, as a result of scaling down of semiconductor devices or low-temperature substrate processing processes, either in the case where the quality of films remains at the conventional level or in the case where the quality of films is degraded due to low-temperature processing, it is difficult to ensure the performance of semiconductor devices. Although new kinds of films are being developed to ensure the performance of semiconductor devices, due to tasks (such as costs and affections on another process) caused by the development of new kinds of films, the case of achieving desired performance levels by improving existing films is more preferable.